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michael.johnson1-Visitor
1-Visitor
February 2, 2012
Question

Newbie Needs Help

  • February 2, 2012
  • 7 replies
  • 2116 views

Hi Folks,


I work for a small government contractor near HillAir Force Base,Utah. We have to generate TOs for the mechanical solutions we develop for various aircraft. Until recently we generated Word and unstructured FrameMaker docs. Now the government wants SGML docs written to 38784STD-Bv8a, which is the DTD the government has developed and supplies from their TMSS website.


We recently purchased Arbortext Editor release 6.0 (Pine). I got it installed on one PC, and have gone through the editor tutorial. Now I am trying to figure out how to get the editor to work with the DTD.


I have no structured authoring experience and don't know what to do next. Is there anybody out there who can point me in the right direction?


Thanks in advance,


Mike Johnson

    7 replies

    G
    GregoryMackenzi1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    February 2, 2012
    Hi Mike,



    You need to obtain the DTD you plan to use and install it to your
    "Custom folder". The DTD(s) should go in their own folder for clarity.
    There will actually probably be more than one. Under 4.3 I needed to
    "compile each DTD" for use with the editor. That way when I select
    File/New I can add the DTDs I compile to the list of DTDs. If you were
    to try to create a document under file/new you'd already see a bunch of
    DTDs there, doctypes.



    I don't use 6 or the DTD your going to be using so others here may have
    more specific things to say about it. Instructions on the custom folder,
    and compiling from within the Editor, are found in the help files. The
    trickiest part I found at first was figuring out what the top level tag
    (element) of a DTD should be. That is written in the DTD itself, which
    you can look at with a text editor, sometimes they put it in comments or
    S1000D for example has a dtd called "pm.dtd", and the top level element
    is , so the top level tag is "pm".



    I hope this points you in the right direction.



    Greg

    J


    M
    michael.johnson1-VisitorAuthor
    1-Visitor
    February 2, 2012

    Thanks for the reply. Version 6 doesn't have a custom folder as far as I can tell

    A
    asbona1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    February 2, 2012
    Mike:



    The custom folder should be located at: c:\Program Files\PTC\Arbortext
    Editor if you have it installed locally on your PC. If Arbortext Editor
    is installed on your network, you'll need to locate the drive where it
    is installed and locate the ..\Program Files\PTC\Arbortext Editor
    folder.



    Hope this helps.



    Andrea



    Andrea J. Sbona

    Director of Training

    TerraXML, Inc.

    asbona@terraxml.com <">mailto:asbona@terraxml.com>

    781-330-1057


    S
    steve.thompson41-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    February 2, 2012
    Couple of things Greg didn't happen to include...

    First, it's usually simplest to name the folder (subfolder of 'custom/doctypes') for each doctype with its DTD name. Last place I worked, your 38784STD-Bv8a would be in a folder with that exact name, and its the DTD file would be '38784STD-Bv8a.dtd'. It's root element is 'doc' (if memory serves).

    Secondly, the 'catalog' file in the custom/doctypes folder will need an entry with the path to that DTD and the public id used to point to it. That will enable Editor to find that DTD when it's referenced in the SGML being loaded.

    Today's $.02.

    Steve Thompson
    C
    ClayHelberg18-Opal
    18-Opal
    February 2, 2012
    Hi Mike--



    Give your newness to Arbortext, I think some formal training would be a
    very wise investment. PTC offers some pretty good training courses to
    get you started using and configuring Arbortext. Getting training will
    save you a lot of time and effort versus trying to figure it out on your
    own.



    Also, for what it's worth, Arbortext 6.0 does allow use of a custom
    directory. In Arbortext, select Help->Help Center from the menus. In the
    Help Center, search for "custom directory", and you will find
    information on the structure of the custom directory, and how to
    configure Arbortext to use it.



    --Clay





    Clay Helberg

    Senior Consultant

    TerraXML


    G
    GarethOakes16-Pearl
    16-Pearl
    February 2, 2012
    +1 to what Clay says.



    You can purchase an Arbortext eLearning subscription (1 year) that will give
    you access to all the Arbortext stuff on PTCU. It is not terribly expensive
    either. That will give you more than enough information to get rolling with
    Arbortext 6.0.



    // Gareth Oakes

    // Chief Architect

    // GPSL (www.gpslsolutions.com)


    M
    michael.johnson1-VisitorAuthor
    1-Visitor
    February 3, 2012

    Hey Everybody,


    Thanks!



    Mike Johnson

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